Nancy Spector leaves Guggenheim and other news from this week in the arts

From prestigious awards winners to chief curator Nancy Spector stepping downwards from the Guggenheim, here'south what'south happening this calendar week in the arts.

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The awardee of 'The Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture,' Jon Henry is portraying black mothers' grief

This week, the award ceremony for The Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture  was held. This year's awardee, Jon Henry, received a $twenty,000 prize for his work ' Stranger Fruit ', the title references Billie Holiday's 'Foreign Fruit'. In the series, he portrays black mothers holding their seemingly lifeless sons every bit a response to police force violence and the perpetual murders of black men in the US.

"The mothers in the photographs accept not lost their sons, but empathise the reality that this could happen to their family," Henry explains. "The female parent is also photographed in isolation, reflecting on the absence. When the trials are over, the protesters have gone dwelling, and the news cameras are gone, it is the female parent left. Left to mourn, to survive."

The piece of work of Jon Henry and The Arnold Newman Prize finalists is currently on display at The Griffin Museum of Photography . The exhibition is on through October 23.

Frieze Viewing Room is giving Fine art Basel a run for its money

This yr's edition of Frieze London and Frieze Masters is primarily held online; 250 galleries are participating in Frieze Viewing Room , which is opening to the public today (Oct nine). The blue-scrap gallery Hauser & Wirth  made over 15 1000000 dollars just during the commencement VIP twenty-four hour period on Wed. Iwan Wirth, the gallery'southward president, stated to ARTnews : "We're on the way to overtake Art Basel every bit our [best-selling] online fair."

Other major galleries, besides equally smaller enterprises, besides saw a successful start of the fair. "In some ways, this crisis has required all of us to take risks to do things we never thought were possible in the previous landscape," Kelly Woods, director at Marianne Boesky , said to ARTnews . "While these times are tough, we have seen growing interest in our digital footprint and accept maintained a steady menstruation of sales throughout the season." Marianne Boesky sold a Haas Brothers work valued at $55,000, a Sanford Biggers for $45,000, and an Allison Janae Hamiliton for $12,000.

The controversial Humboldt Forum is set to open subsequently this year

Berlin'southward anticipated, and dreaded, Humboldt Forum  volition start welcoming visitors from 17 December, after being delayed due to the pandemic. The vast museum, located in the reconstructed imperial palace in the neighborhood Mitte, has been in the works for nearly a decade and caused controversies along the manner.

In 2018, protesters took to the streets, calling it "a memorial to the colonial era," criticizing the project for its connection with looting and cultural appropriation. The website No Humboldt 21  states:

"The bulk of the over 500,000 valuable items from all over the world concluded upwardly in Berlin through colonial conquests. The Europeans ofttimes even resorted to physical violence in order to gain buying of central objects belonging to the colonized societies – for example, thrones, scepters, and cult objects. By taking the credit for these objects, the metropolis of Berlin receives fabric benefits every bit well as intangible advantages up until the present twenty-four hours."

When opening this December, the focus volition be on Humboldt-Forum's own architecture. 2021 volition showtime off with an experimental exhibition aimed at children, forth with two shows focusing on environmental concerns and the urban center of Berlin. The rest of the space will open up in phases throughout the year, with the chief program starting around Easter. The eastern fly of the building volition open at the end of the year with an exhibition that includes "a disquisitional approach to the colonial legacy."

Nancy Spector is leaving the Guggenheim Museum afterward allegations of racial bias

Guggenheim  has announced that the principal curator of 34 years, Nancy Spector, is leaving the museum. She has been on leave since the commencement of July because of allegations of racial bias towards the guest curator Chaedria LaBouvier – the offset-e'er blackness curator to organize a testify at Guggenheim.

The dispute started in June when LaBouvier shared her experiences at the institution. "Working at the Guggenheim west/ Nancy Spector & the leadership was the most racist professional experience of my life," she  wrote on Twitter .

An independent investigation, instigated past Guggenheim and conducted by the police force firm Kramer Levin, has at present cleared Spector from these allegations; just she has withal decided to leave the foundation permanently. LaBouvier responded to the news, stating that she was never interviewed for this investigation.

Fred Moten and Ralph Lemon among 2020 MacArthur Fellows

It was announced this week that cultural theorist Fred Moten and choreographer Ralph Lemon are amid this year's MacArthur "Genius" grant winners . The grant consists of a no-strings-attached prize of $625,000, disbursed over v years by the MacArthur Foundation.

The foundation recognizes Ralph Lemon for "Generating interdisciplinary modes of creative expression for stories, emotions, memories, and identities that traditional media exercise not accommodate," and Fred Moten for: "Creating new conceptual spaces to accommodate emerging forms of Blackness aesthetics, cultural production, and social life."

Ralph Lemon, photo courtesy of John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Ralph Lemon, photograph courtesy of John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

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